Assessment - Chapter 15

As teachers the assessment and assessment strategics that we give our students will be the most important thing that we do. Sound assessment practices should be closely tied to instruction they should reflect our instructional goals, guide our instructional strategies, and provide the means through which we track students progress through the curriculum. And in one sense, at least, assessment is instruction. It gives students clear messages about what things are considered most important for them to know and able to do. There are various forms of educational assessment such as informal assessment, formal assessment, paper and pencil assessment, performance assessment, traditional assessment, and authentic assessment. It is very important as teachers that we use a variety of assessment strategies to cater to the needs of all the students in the class. some students may be better at different assessments and it would be unfair if we just used the same one. Good assessment has many different aspects. Reliability, standardization, validity, and practicality are all aspects of assessment that need to be taken into account when creating and appropriate assessment. Although summative assessment is extremely important. I think formative assessment is equally important because it can give me as a teacher a better grasp on the development of students. In my classroom I will use as many authentic assessments as possible. Things like group presentations and portfolio activities will be utilized to show cognitive development.

Learning and Cognitive Process - Chapter 6

To learn and remember something effectively, we must give our undivided attention- that is, we must mentally focus on it and temporarily make it the center of our cognitive world. As teachers we must continually emphasize the importance of understanding classroom subject matter, making sense of it, drawing inferences from it, seeing how it all ties together rather than simply memorizing it in a relatively thought free manner. This emphasis must be reflected not only in our worlds but also in our instructional activities, classroom assignments, and assessment practices. For instance, rather than just presenting important ideas in class room lectures and asking student to take notes, we might also ask thought provoking questions that require students to evaluate, synthesize, or apply what they are learning. Or as an alternative to asking students to memorize procedures to adding two two digit numbers, we might ask them to suggest at least three different ways they might solve the problem. And rather than assessing their knowledge of history, names, places, and dates, we might then ask them to explain why certain historical events happen and how those events altered the course of subsequent history. Such approaches will not only make student learning more meaningful and effective but will also enhance their belief that classroom topics are interesting, enjoyable, and in some way relevant to their own lives.

Individual Differences - Chapter 5

This chapter goes over many different theories for intelligence. The Chapter really stresses the importance of understanding individual differences when trying to assess the intelligence of a student. As I have said before, I think that this is the toughest part of being a teacher. We are going to have 20 to 30 students in our class and every single one of them have their own issues and own differences that make them unique and we have to try to teach to all of them and reach every single one of them so they can continue to progress socially and academically. They define intelligence as the ability to apply prior knowledge and experiences flexibly to accomplish challenging new tasks. Then we learned about a few different theories on what is, or how to measure intelligences. There is Spearman's concept of "g", Cattell's Fluid and Crystalized Intelligences, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and Sternberg's Triarchic Theory. Of all these theories I would have to say that my favorite would have to be Gardner's multiple intelligence. I think I like to most because it treats the student more like an individual. Everybody has strengths in different areas and the multiple intelligence test allows students to see that for themselves. Who cares that a student is not the smartest in linguistics, they are brilliant in math and that is what they excel in and that's the most effective way they can learn.

Personal and Social Development

I think the beginning of the chapter says it perfectly when they wrote that school was not just a place fro developing cognitive and linguistic skills. It is also a place for personal development. Children and adolescents acquire distinctive patterns of behavior and build on self understanding that initially in infancy and preschool years. The very social nature of school makes it and ideal context for social development. The chapter goes over many different aspects of life that led to social development or the lack thereof. Parenting styles have many different effects on students. All styles of parenting such as authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved have a ton of influence on the social development of their children. Sense of self is a massive issue that all children need to address and understand if they want to develop socially. Thoughts such as How smart am I? How attractive am I? Am I a good athlete? It is important that as teachers we do our best to help students understand that they have enormous self worth in any situation. Look for the strengths in all your students. Erik Erikson describes 8 stages through which people proceed over the course of development. Each stage provides a unique development task, and how an individual addresses it influences the person's overall development. Just like it is important to know Piaget's theory and help students progress cognitively, it is important to know Erikson's stages to help us understand what level our students are at and how we can help them progress socially.

Cognititve and Linguistic Development - Chapter 2

This was a pretty good chapter that went over students cognitive development which is the developmental changes in thinking and reasoning. This chapter goes over two philosophies of cognitive development. Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget has four distinct stages of cognitive development. 1. Sensorimotor (Birth to age 2) 2. Preoperational stage (age 2 until 6 or 7) 3. Concrete Operational stage (6 or 7 until about 11 or12 years old) 4. Formal Operational State (11 or 12 until adulthood). The chapter obviously goes into much detail of all these stages. It is very important that we have these stages in our mind as teachers do we can assess what stage the student is functioning at and adjust, if necessary, our teaching strategies to help the student. Piaget thought that children were largely in control of their own cognitive development. Vygotsky says that adults in society foster children's cognitive development. This is an interesting view to have and I think that the most important thing that I learned about Vygotsky's theory was the Zone of Proximal Development. Each student has this zone and to effectively instruct each student they need to be operating within their zone of development. If you teach at to difficult a level the students will not understand the material and if you teach under the zone the students will thing it is too easy and will not get everything out of the lesson that they should. It is huge for us to teach within the zone, but it is really hard to teach in the zone because every student could be at different stages of development. This is the challenge that faces teachers!

Group Differences

This is a great topic and I think that is is incredibly relevant to teaching all levels and in all places. This chapter talked in detail about cultural differences, gender differences, and socioeconomic differences. As teachers I think that it is very important to be sensitive to other students culture, particularly those that you are not familiar with. As a teacher in my classroom I will do my very best to understand behavior of students that may be attributed to culture. Behaviors such as eye contact, silence, and class participation. Gender differences is important to know as well because it is important to know how boys and girls act in the classroom and towards each other. By understanding the differences between boy and girls we, as teachers, can give groups of children different tasks that can best be adapted to gender and also mix it up so there students can step outside of their comfort circle. We also need to be made aware of potential difficulties that could occur with students whose families have difficult financial abilities. We need to be able to adapt our teaching to sometimes accommodate families with low incomes. Things such as homework and attendance may be a problem.